Kurdistan’s Weekly Brief September 5, 2017

Iran

On Monday, September 4th, the Kurdistan Human Rights Human Network reported that guards of the Iranian regime shot two border porters known as “Kolbars”. The victims are Kurdish – a 41 year old father of four and a 22 year old. In a reaction to the killing, many protested the regime in front of the Mayor of Baneh’s office. The Iranian regime kill tens of Kolbars every year on the border crossings in the Kurdish regions between the Iraq and Iran borders.

Iraq

The Independent High Electoral Commission in the Kurdistan region announced the dates of the campaign for the Independence Referendum from September 5-22. The Commission announced that the special voting for the diaspora, security personnel, and government employees who will be working on September 25 will vote on September 23. The Commission announced that five and a half million will be eligible to vote in the Kurdistan region and the disputed territories.

The Change Party (Gorran) and the Islamic Group (Komal) leaders held a meeting to discuss the upcoming Independence Referendum on September 25 in Kurdistan region. After the meetings, both parties called to delay the referendum and urged the reactivation of the Parliament in order to pass a law for a referendum.

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and Pearl Petroleum Company (partner with Dana Gas) reached a settlement after court disputed over a gas contract in the region, going back to 2007.Inajointstatement the MNR and Pearl Consortium said that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will immediately pay Pearl Consortium one billion dollars. 400 million will be “dedicated for investment exclusively for the aforesaid further development to substantially increase production.”

After the liberation of Tal Afar town west of Mosul, the Peshmerga forces detained 50 women and children of ISIS militants. As the ISIS Caliphate fell apart in Iraq, more of the terrorists surrendered to the Peshmerga forces.

Syria

A U.S. military source told CNN that Turkish backed rebels exchanged fire with the U.S. military personal stationed in Northern Syria in late August. The fire exchange took place in Manbij town, which was liberated in August 2016 by the U.S. led collation with help from the Kurdish and Arab coalition fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey is opposing the U.S. in their support to the SDF while Turkey supports Islamic groups in town near Manbij as they try fighting the SDF and taking control of the town. In the exchange, there were no casualties reported by either side.

Clashes continued between the SDF and ISIS terrorists in Raqqa neighborhoods. On August 29, the SDF announced the death of 29 ISIS militants, 7 of which were snipers. The SDF also announced the death of one of their prominent commanders in Raqqa who was the general commander of Manbij Military Council (MMC) and played a major role in liberating Manbij last year known as Adnan Abu Amjad. The SDF released a statement calling Abu Amjad a martyr. “This brave commander was martyred during the heroic battles with the terrorism crows on Tuesday August 29, 2017,” read the statement. The statement noted that Abu Amjad had participated in liberation of Kobani, Tel Abyad, Tishreen Dam, Manbij, and al-Hol battles. The SDF liberated two more neighborhoods in the city resulting in compilation of liberation of the old city of Raqqa.

Turkey

After a Turkish armed drone killed a Kurdish civilian and wounded three others in Hakkari Province, Bedia Ozgokce the lawmaker of the Pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) slammed the Turkish government describing the act as war crime. The Turkish government’s conflicting statements about the incident raised questions by the HDP and the lawmakers. In Diyarbakir Province (Amed) and as a result of military campaigns for two years, the historical town of Sur has been destroyed. The HDP released a statement calling on authorities to “stop ongoing destruction and displacement.” In the Statement, the HDP said, “The 8,000-year-old ancient Sur district in urban Diyarbakır, included in the World Heritage list by UNESCO in 2015, has been under systematic destruction by Turkish government.” The HDP demanded the Turkish government to “immediately end the curfew in Sur, stop all activities of expropriation and destruction,” alongside other demands.

On the occasion of Eid Al Adha, the family of the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan applied to visit him in prison but the Turkish authorities rejected the request. Since the end of the peace processes between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) the Turkish government has not allowed any visit by family members and Kurdish politicians to visit Ocalan except on Sept 11, 2016. Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in an isolated Turkish prison in an island near Istanbul since 1999.

After arresting several German-Turkish citizens on charges of spying for the Turkish government in Germany, German Der Spiegel magazine revealed that one suspect (Mehmet Fatih Saylan) who was arrested last December admitted he was on the payroll of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization knowns as (MIT). Saylan’s task was to monitor Kurdish activists including a mission to provoke Kurdish youth to attack a German official in charge of the Green Party.

After attacking Kurdish peaceful protestors by the guards of the Turkish President in Washington this past May, the Washington D.C. prosecutor office indicted 19 people who were involved in actions against the protestors. According to U.S. laws, all 19 defendants will be facing trial for violent behavior and hate crime which can result in 15 years in prison for each.